Building bitcoin in Rust

by Lukas Hozda

"Building bitcoin in Rust" by Lukáš Hozda is an accessible guide for those interested in both the Rust programming language and bitcoin technology. Designed for IT students and professionals, this book takes readers through the process of understanding bitcoin’s core concepts while simultaneously teaching them to build projects in Rust. It’s perfect for anyone who is curious about Rust, a programming language praised for its safety and performance, or bitcoin, the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency. Through hands-on development of a bitcoin miner, wallet, and node, this book helps readers sharpen their Rust skills and explore bitcoin’s infrastructure, making it an ideal starting point for building on bitcoin.

439 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2024

Reviews

[Jakub · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is quite good in general, but the target audience is unclear. If you already know Rust, the first third feels redundant. If you do not, the material is often too simplistic to build a solid understanding. At the same time, a solid knowledge of Bitcoin is required to have a genuine interest in the book at all.

What I miss is a clearer middle ground between a brief introduction and a “let’s dive in” approach. Some concepts would benefit from being introduced earlier or later when they first appear. In addition, accompanying video walkthrough and/or publishing the code with extensive comments would significantly improve accessibility.

That said, this is a difficult topic to cover in book form, and overall it is handled quite well.

[Max Mynter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty decent book. I learned a lot about Rust and Bitcoin. One time, an intermediate state of the project should compile but the code included references to functions we would only write 30ish pages later.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am not really fan of writing code following the book BUT this one was pretty fun i guess